As a team from the Foundation for African Empowerment, Karen Bilton Butterfield and I visited Chemka primary school located in Kilimanjaro region in Tanzania. We firsthand witnessed lack of safe water and we were wondering why pupils continue to live in undignified life and sometimes miss school. Amina who is the Head Girl courageously told us about the water challenges facing her school. She said:-
“Safe and clean water is a serious problem in our school. We are more than 250 students. We stay in school for 9 hours from 6am up to 3pm without eating anything. No safe water to drink, no safe water in the toilets for wiping ourselves and no safe water for washing our hands. The situation is even worse for us girls particularly when we are in menstrual cycle. Some of us even stay off school during our menses.”

As we were talking, we saw pupils including the little ones carrying buckets of water between 10 to 20 liters from home. We found out that also their village does not have access to safe water. Hence, pupils collect water from ponds where animals drink and bring to school. The water is unclean and unsafe making pupils and teachers frequently suffer from diseases such as typhoid, Urinary Track Infections and schistosomiasis. These conditions perpetuate poverty among the children and their households.

Guys, Amina’s school is facing a critical water problem requiring immediate assistance if the school attendance, health and dignity is to be upheld. We were informed that over the past year, around 40% of the pupils had contracted water-borne diseases affecting their health and school attendance.

We decided to help to ensure that Amina’s school has access to safe drinking water. Karen and myself have put together TSh 200,000 for this project. Join us to help Amina’s school get access to safe water.

Your donation of USD 50 can help to buy 5 water taps. Please donate today as generously as you can. Also, help to share this campaign.

Thank you for your support.